DIY floor sanding with no experience...

[MiniKiwi]

We're just being cheap really and don't want to pay someone to sand the floor in our apartment but wondering if it's a terrible idea to do it ourselves with no experience. We'd obviously hire a floor sanding machine and it's only one room with hard wood floor which has previously been varnished with two coats of dark varnish. We want it right back to the wood to stain with coloured oil.

Anyone got any experience with floor sanding? Was it easy or a nightmare? Did you end up wishing you hired a professional to do it?

 

[supertabby]

We did it in our old house. Hubby did all the sanding because I'm asthmatic and it does get very dusty. It was hard work as it took a couple of hours but it wasn't technically difficult, it was just being on his feet and pushing the thing around. Imagine hoovering with a big hoover for that time, you'd get achey muscles. I did the varnishing afterwards which was easy to do. I certainly wouldn't say you'd regret it - a days hard work will save you a lot of money imo.

 

[MiniKiwi]

Thank you! That's definitely what I wanted to hear

We have had a number of quotes and just the sanding alone, without the cost of machine hire and no varnishing afterwards, will cost roughly £1000. We do live in a very expensive place so that's just a standard price. The floor area is only 20 square metres.

 

[lilyd]

We did it in our old house. Hubby did all the sanding because I'm asthmatic and it does get very dusty. It was hard work as it took a couple of hours but it wasn't technically difficult, it was just being on his feet and pushing the thing around. Imagine hoovering with a big hoover for that time, you'd get achey muscles. I did the varnishing afterwards which was easy to do. I certainly wouldn't say you'd regret it - a days hard work will save you a lot of money imo.

Ditto, we did it ourselves, just makes your arms ache!

 

[jd83]

My mom did it to the floors in her house when we were kids. I remember her saying it made her arms ache, as it was hard pushing it around, but a days work. You'll be fine. Make sure you get good dust masks, I def remember it being REALLY dusty from the sanding, and cleaning it all up was a pain.

 

[rosie272]

I did it in my old place! It was only one room and it was quite straight forward (but yeah pretty tough on the arm muscles) I sanded the floorboards flat, then using the dust that created I made a paste with resin and filled all the cracks with it. Then after cleaning it all down, I painted the floor white and varnished it - I was pretty pleased with the results but it did take patience! You should go for it